104th Leads City in Graffiti Arrests

Community Board 5 lauded the 104th Precinct at a meeting last week for leading the city in graffiti arrests.

According to a report from the board’s Public Safety Committee, the local precinct covering Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale and more has arrested 144 people in connection with graffiti vandalism since the beginning of the year.

This isn’t completely new though. The report also referenced the 104th large number of graffiti arrests last year: 436 in total—which was also the most out of all five boroughs.

“That is quite an achievement, that we’ve reached a point where graffiti vandalism is taken seriously in the borough of queens and of course the 104,” said Bob Holden, a CB 5 board member.

The precinct with the next most arrests was the neighboring 108th with 236, Holden said.

The 108th covers the areas just north of the 104th including Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City.

That effort in Queens to crack down on graffiti also extends to the D.A., Holden said.

A longtime Middle Village resident, Holden listed three vandals he said had terrorized the neighborhood and said they were either sentenced to time in prison or order to pay restitution and serve probation when the 104th arrested them and they had to face prosecution.

“The D.A. is serious about graffiti, and we were happy about that because we haven’t seen that in a long time,” Holden said.

That doesn’t mean all graffiti in the area has stopped however, Holden warned, saying tagging is still an issue.

“There is a new gang that popped up called the Middle Village Bombing Crew,” Holden said. “But the 104 is on that. They’ve arrested, so far, three of them.”